Barbecue Sauce

An important part of overall gut-health and keeping your immune system strong is reducing the amount of refined sugar consumed daily. There is a reason white sugar was once called “The White Death”. It feeds the pathogenic bacteria in our gut microbiome, soon allowing them to overtake our good bacteria. Once this dysbiosis occurs, numerous health issues can arise that stem back to the chronic inflammation caused by leaky gut and microbial dysbiosis.

Typically, barbecue sauce found in the grocery store is very high in sugar and low in nutritional value. The barbecue sauce I’ve put together here is sweetened with a small amount of maple syrup (an unrefined sweetener), and also contains raw apple cider vinegar which packs a punch of enzymes, proteins and bacteria.

When purchasing apple cider vinegar, you want to look for the words “raw” and “unfiltered”. You also want an apple cider vinegar containing the “Mother”, which is a sediment at the bottom of the bottle consisting mostly of acetic acid-type bacteria. Unfiltered apple cider vinegar will be darker in colour than filtered, so that is another thing to pay attention to as well.

This barbecue sauce coats nicely on barbecued chicken, as pictured above. It’s also great on plant-based alternatives like tempeh. A couple tempeh recipes will be coming soon!

*yields 1 cup

Ingredients:

1/4 cup raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar

1/8 cup maple syrup

2 dashes liquid smoke

1/2 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

dash of tabasco or other hot sauce (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large liquid measuring cup or bowl and whisk until combined.

Alternatively, you can add all ingredients to a jar and shake until thouroghly mixed.

Done! This keeps for up to 2 weeks refrigerated.